WIP Wednesday - more Croeso, a knitting pain update, and Clapotis thoughts

Hi! I don't have any pretty pictures for you today, but I hope you'll bear with me anyway.

My wrists and thumbs are doing a little better lately. I took 2 days off from knitting, and I got wrist braces (nothing fancy, just OTC stuff) from the drugstore and a wrist rest for my mousepad. All these things together seem to be helping. I've also been trying for better posture while knitting.

I can still really only do 2 rows on the Croeso at a time, but they're pretty long rows at this point so I do feel like I've made progress even after just doing that much. I've finished section 4 and started section 5. This is the last section! In the next row, I'll be starting a few more cables.

I've been obsessing a little about a certain section of cable that I accidentally twisted. It looks weird and is somewhat noticeable, but it's way back toward the beginning and there's no way I'm going back to fix it now, so I've just got to learn to live with it. Whoops. Checking my cables a lot more carefully now.

I've been thinking a lot today about knitting a Clapotis. I have 2 different yarns I could use - one is Berroco Cotton Twist (worsted cotton blend) in a brown/white/teal multi and the other is Wool in the Woods Cameo (100% rayon DK) in a green/blue/pink/purple multi. Leaning toward the latter only because I have more of it. I've only got 595 yards of the Cotton Twist. Of the others on Ravelry who have made it with the Cotton Twist, some have used more than this and some have used less. I can't figure out why the amount of yarn used varies so widely. (If you know, please leave a comment!) :-)

Block Party!

OK, really it's a Blocking Party. I mean, come on, this is a craft blog. Today I finally blocked some knitting projects that I hadn't had a chance to before. I wet blocked most of them (using my Soak wash for the first time ever) and spray blocked one cowl (my Honey made with Lorna's Laces Honor - it's alpaca and silk and I don't have the label, so I wanted to be safe). Everything's still drying on the blocking board.

See? Party! That's my Gallatin Scarf (free pattern!) on the bottom, which I haven't posted about before. It was a quick knit and very enjoyable. Here's what it looked like before weaving in ends and blocking:

The colors are gorgeous. I mean, they look even better in person. I love it. And it was quick and easy! Well, it was easy after I had to rip it out the first time because I messed up the lace and hadn't made lifelines. You can bet I'll be using lifelines with all of my lace knitting from now on. The yarn is Yarntopia Treasures Cotton Boucle.

I think I managed to stretch the Ritalin cowl out sufficiently. It's 17" in diameter now (which gives it a 34" length all around), and that should do nicely. More about the Ritalin to come in another post.

I also washed my 2nd Honey cowl, which I hadn't blocked before but which I have worn a few times already! I laid it out flat to dry. Not sure if it's increased in length or width. It still looks great, though.

My current knitting project is a Curvy Knits Flare Top for myself in NaturallyCaron.com Spa yarn (acrylic and bamboo) in a pretty coral color. I am also still working on Design Three/Liwen, but I wanted to make something to wear in the warmer weather. I may be done knitting it by winter. ;-P

I have a few rows done, but nothing picture-worthy yet. I will say, I DO NOT like those k3tog or p3tog that are used to decrease the wedges at the bottom. They drive me crazy and they don't look neat when they're done. I hope the final effect will be worth it.

It's WIP Wednesday again!

Yes, it's that time again. Sorry for not posting last week, but I really didn't have much to post. This time, I've made a little more progress on my sweater:

Again, this is the left front panel. I've done some armhole shaping and neckline shaping, as well as more cabling (woohoo!). I haven't done more only because this pattern involves some serious work keeping track of which row you're supposed to do what. It's not the best pattern ever, but I'm pushing through it because I want the finished result. Others have done it successfully - so can I! (Right? I sure hope so.) Anyway, in order to work on this I have to really concentrate, and I've been on some painkillers lately for a medical condition and have been a little afraid to work on the sweater while dopey.

Here's a cable close-up:

I have also started a Ritalin Cowl which has been somewhat disastrous so far. I twisted the beginning row by accident and tried to fix it and wound up with some weird-looking stitches that I've decided not to go back and fix (it's such a long cowl that I doubt anyone will notice a few wonky stitches on the seam, though of course you might now - oops). The cowl starts with 6 rows of moss stitch. Easy, right? So I sat down to work on it last night (when I was also doped up on painkillers). Bad idea. I picked it up in the middle of a row, and wound up working in the wrong direction! D'oh!! Thankfully, I noticed what I was doing fairly quickly. I still have to undo the damage, but it shouldn't be so bad. It's just discouraging. And here I was looking for an easy knit.

I'm using these colors:

I think it's all Debbie Bliss Cathay yarn, but the gray and teal were both given to me without labels. Anyway, I've started with the gray and am going to use the colors in this order (left to right). Should be very pretty, if I can manage without totally screwing it up. Haha. I do find it funny that I'm working on 2 projects and of the 2 of them, I screw up the easy one and not the complicated one. I'd better stop laughing about it before I mess up the other one, too! ;-)